ERRA Women’s National 4-Stage Road Relay, Sutton Coldfield

Brave Belles Battle to top 50

After 19 “no’s” and a “maybe” for the Southern four-stage, it was heart-warming to send four strong and true Belles to do battle with the very best of the rest at Sutton Park, Will Cockerell writes. First up was the extremely talented, though inexperienced school-teacher Zoe Vail. The start of this race is not for the faint-hearted: narrow, fast, downhill, and with a sharp early turn. 162 flying elbows all vying for supremacy. Zoe took it all in her stride and was in 20th at the turn and looking good – nearly a foot taller than some of her rivals.

Attacking the hill, Zoe’s calves inexplicably tightened and it was grit your teeth time for the next twelve minutes, as some two dozen came by. Appearing at the finish somewhat shell-shocked, we had to explain to Zoe, that for the most part, every club had fielded their strongest runner. “I can do better than that – we’re back here in the Spring aren’t we?” she asked determinedly. Yes we are Zoe, have a great winter and see you then.

Next up was the ever game Tilly Heaton. An extremely loyal club stalwart entering into her ninth season as a Belgravian, Tilly’s strength is indisputable as shown by her superb 34th in the London Marathon two years ago. This is more of a speedsters race, and Tilly has been lacking in quality sessions since joining Christie’s as a lawyer in dispute resolution. But her strength is still fine, and she’d have progressed more than her four places up the list if not for a stomach cramp at half-way.

Step up Jenny Beecroft, more comfortable in less ferocious surroundings than this, but boldly weighing in to keep us afloat. We were prepared for Jen to bleed a few positions and what we hoped against was a haemorrhage. Not a bit of it. A mere six athletes passed, setting up supervet Helen Smethurst nicely in 51st place. This was Helen’s first scamper for two weeks due to a bad cold, and on the gentle warm-up her pulse was already pushing 180. What a trooper. Her familiar long-loping stride looked in fine stead in the closing stages. “How many did you catch,” we asked anxiously. “Caught two, lost two...” So 51st appeared our fate unless any clubs ahead had failed to find that fourth body. YES – two had. We were inside the top 50 in the land, and in six months we can surely massage that to top 30. From there, the top 20 shimmers brightly ... and, well, you get the picture.

1 Aldershot, Farnham & Dist AC 57:09; 2 Chester-le-Street 58:17; 3 City of Norwich AC 58:53; … 49 Belgrave H 1:10:11; 81 teams started, 73 teams finished.

Belgrave: Z Vail (49) 16:15, M Heaton (45) 16:55, J Beecroft (51) 19:16, H Smethurst (49) 17:45.

Fastest: C Purdue (Aldershot F&D AC) 13:53; 2 F Murray (Chester-le-Street) 13:54; S Twell (Aldershot F&D AC) 14:00.

Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.